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Linux Gaming after Loki
mahdi13 writes "Linux Hardware has a great story about the past, present and future of Linux Gaming in 2003. They briefly touch on the commercial games available and what will be available for Linux in the near future. It is a good read and contains excellent information to keep the Linux Gamers satisfied with what is commercially available."
Let's face it... being a gamer on Linux today is just a bit behind being a gamer on Mac...
And we've all seen THAT "Switch" commercial.
Ñ'
excuse me? I am VERY satisfied that UT2003 was release with the linux client on the install disks. Granted I wanted to BEAT THEM for not supplying install instructions... I.E. "linux users look at disc 3 first" footnote in the manual.
but I bough 2 copies of ut2003 and let them know that I bought it because they made a linux client.
Now if we can get more good games released for linux (no not that sims crap) like ghost recon or splinter cell (Doubt it as that company is full of MS fanboys.) we will have to only have the wares of ID and the others that are foreward thinking enough to release linux clients for their games.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I've always been more into the freely available games out there when it comes to Linux.
:)
For big flashy commercial 3d games and such, I generally prefer Windows anyway since I know it'll work right off. (Well, usually anyway
In Linux, I like those games made by people with creative minds, but not the money to try to produce a big budget game. These games are frequently much more interesting, and sometimes even more graphically appealing.. (I like cheezy 2d graphics better sometimes, especially if it's a fun game)... in fact, one of my favorite Linux games ever, Koules, had very simplistic graphics, but four of us would huddle around the KB and a joystick and play that game for hours!
I bet you that game had a budget of $0. Development tools, graphics programs and all sorts of useful apps exist for free in Linux.. so anyone with an idea and enough spare time can make something that could be more fun to play than a game with a 10 million dollar budget.
What, no mention of Transgaming? Sure they don't actually port the games to Linux, but if it works it works. The only big problem is that the Transgaming versions have to deal with all of the copy protection crap the Windows users have to deal with. Has a CD Key ever kept someone from pirating a game? Do any games with SafeDisc (which don't work in my computer) actually avoid being 0-day Warez? How many hours of my life have I wasted installing games only to realize that it's got another CD protection scheme that breaks in my DVD drive? How many hours of tech support time have I wasted with these problem (at least Blizzard fixed it in a patch, unlike most companies that just ignore you)[1]?
I think Loki got it right. Too bad they were probably a bit too early (not enough users with cash) to make money. It's a shame, because the Loki versions usually ran better than the Windows versions on my machine.
[1] Well, not too many, I usually just return the game instead.
I read the internet for the articles.
21-6 Productions is one of the studios developing games with the Torque Game Engine offered by GarageGames. It's a bit of a shameless plug, but today is the launch day for our title Orbz 2.0, which is being released for Linux, Mac, and Windows simultaneously, along with a demo for each platform.
We really believe in developing fun and interesting games for both the Linux and Mac platforms. We don't just believe in doing so just because it's "the right thing", but also because there is money to be made. The article mentions Marble Blast, another TGE-powered title, and the Mac and Linux sales have been substantial. Certainly nothing for a small, independently-financed game studio such as ours to turn our noses up at.
WTF are talking about?
NWN runs BETTER in linux than it does in windows. Maybe you are using some POS videocard - but there is no reason at all for 20fps.
I have a fairly standard rig and it runs fine:
1.2 Ghz Athlon
512MB RAM
Geforce4 Ti4200
NWN is great! Since the linux client has come out it has totally taken all of my time (yes the built in modules aren't that great - but the user created content that is out there is INCREDIBLE).
Derek
One thing's for sure: TG has the balls to come out and make their product for those who would much prefer not to deal with a MS product for whatever reason. I've seen MS give the shaft to a lot of people and business in my professional carrer, and they rightfully deserve the "M$" monkier. Give TG time, and issues with it will hammer out. They've expanded the Linux gaming library quite a bit more than Loki has, along with icculus.
Karma whorin' since 1999
"A while ago, Hyperion Entertainment ported both Sin and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division to Linux. While they haven't ported any games to Linux recently, they were considering porting Tzar, but Linux gamers rejected that idea. That is sad, because Linux doesn't have an overabundance of real-time strategy games at the moment. I think that we shouldn't be so choosy when it comes to what we get ported, as we are a very small market as it is. I would have liked to buy Tzar, or any RTS game for that matter. I hope that Hyperion find something to port in the near future, as well as a publisher willing to support them. The more games we get, the better!"
Shogo had clipping issues, pretty large ones....Tzar was rejected because we're getting Disciples 2, wehich is similer but much better. Tzar didn't really offer anything unique.
StarTux
Isn't this going against history? Now, MS probably won't target WineX perse, but they will throw a monkey wrench every once in a while to keep people from running MS apps on non MS OS (even before I learned of Linux, I was so suspicious about the stupidity of just about all MS save formats -- huge, bloated, error prone, and of course incompatible with everything else. Oh, and it didn't seem like incompetence, since as far as I could tell this kept getting worse not better).
Incompatibility is about the only thing MS knows how to do -- I guess I have to disagree and say (just as always in the past) that it's just a matter of time.
Unless this really catches on, and it will then probably be legislated, not just made difficult with obfuscated Word/Excel/Whatever formats.
I'm holding out for Java3D games like Magicosm. Windows, Linux, Mac gamers unite!
Hyperion just completed an agreement with IncaGold to bring their games to Amiga, MacOS, and Linux, the first title being Midnight Racing. Here's to giving Linux another shot. ::raises glass::
Since UT2003 is available for linux, the engine has already been ported so Unreal 2 should be an easy port. The only reason why they may not publish it for linux is due to an estimated lack of demand making it not financially worthwhile, but I suspect that even then it should be possible to just borrow the engine from UT2003 and use the Unreal 2 data and game code to play the game, since the developers seem to write everything in UnrealScript these days.
All uninformed speculation, of course.
Wouldn't it be most logical/cost effective to take a look at companies like Aspyr? They port Windows games to OS X, and to judge by the (relative) ease with which I can run Linux or other Unixes' software on my Mac - tools like Fink and X11 lending a helping hand - it surely wouldn't be too hard to do the same thing in the opposite direction, licenses permitting.
Must be better than converting Windows to *nix twice over, surely. And the Mac gaming scene has far more titles than the Linux one (currently), so you'd get a higher release rate.